“100%”: Liam Gallagher on his philosophy on life and being in a band
Being in a band isn’t something for the faint of heart. The entire premise of making music for a living requires a lot of uphill battles, and even when you reach the top of the mountain, it’s anyone’s guess whether you will stay up there for years on end or end up crashing and burning in a blaze of glory. Oasis wasn’t safe from their fair share of ups and downs throughout the 1990s, but Liam Gallagher always felt that it was better to remember the good times rather than dwell on the pitfalls.
Judging by their interviews, though, you’d swear that neither of the Gallagher brothers had a bad day in their entire lives. Even when they lost to Blur during the ‘Battle of Britpop’, it didn’t take long for them to pick themselves back up and become one of the legends of rock and roll once What’s the Story Morning Glory came out.
Just as they seemed to reach the heights that all of their heroes had done, though, it was about time for everything to come crashing right back down to Earth. As much as people loved Be Here Now when it came out, it’s seen today as an incredibly spotty project, complete with songs that are way too long and recording techniques that are very questionable, considering how much white noise tends to be left in the mix.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Liam from shouting the praises of any of the albums he’s worked on. There are times when everyone at least has to have some self-awareness about their work, but Liam is more content with acknowledging the problems but still looking on the bright side of life in the grand Eric Idle tradition.
Look no further than when he formed Beady Eye out of the ashes of Oasis. There was pretty much no way that they were going to have the same impact that they would have with an Oasis project. Still, because Liam believed in it, it made everyone else want to root for him, especially when tunes like ‘The Roller’ came out and actually managed to sound pretty damn good compared to Dig Out Your Soul.
However, the biggest indication of Liam’s attitude comes from the documentary Supersonic. It was clear from the footage from Knebworth that it was one of the group’s absolute peaks in influence, but Liam had no regrets about any of the dark periods, saying, “At the end of the day, I wake up, and I go, right, do the good times outweigh the bad times, fucking 100%.”
And it’s that determination that turned him into one of the few leading voices in rock in a world that was still dominated by pop music. There may be some harsh realities that everyone goes through, but for Liam, it was worth it when he managed to reclaim his spot at Knebworth as a solo artist a full two decades after Oasis played there.
So, while being in a band warring against your brother isn’t the ideal position, Liam always knew enough to appreciate the good times while they lasted. Since you never know how long those moments will last, it’s important to capture them in real time rather than just focus on all of the squabblings behind the scenes.
